Brave Princess
by Camille Anne
Summary: The 100 are just starting to adapt to living on the ground. Clarke is struggling to cope with the loss of her lover and the responsibilities of leadership. Bellamy is trying to understand what it means to be a leader. But disaster is soon to strike and sacrifices will have to be made. The 100 are surviving for now, but how long can they stay that way?
1. Clarke

**This is a kind of a short prologue chapter. I won't be following the TV show too closely, so just keep that in mind. I don't know how often I'll be posting chapters because I'm really busy, but I'll try to post about once a week. I hope you enjoy my take on The 100!**

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><p>I looked around the camp with satisfaction and pride. We had made this. Out of nearly nothing, we had built this camp and maintained it. The walls were piled high with logs and scrap metal. Tents stood solemnly in a circle around the clearing. When the council on the ark had sent us to the ground, they hadn't expected us to survive. However, here we were, thriving.<p>

But it was far from perfect and there was much still to be done. Everywhere, teenagers were milling around like worker ants. Two girls were refilling the water trough that stood in the middle of camp with buckets of water from the stream. A team of guys had started to work on skinning and cooking the latest catch: a monstrous wolf that had been found prowling around camp. Beyond the walls, I could hear boys and girls alike training with spears and knives, training for war.

Footsteps approached. I snapped out of my deep thoughts and looked up to find someone I really didn't want to see: Finn. My heart twisted painfully. I couldn't look at him without remembering the night that we had shared together. I was stupid to think that I was the only one who could have fallen for the suave spacewalker.

"Hey," Finn said casually, "We need to talk."

I was about to protest when he cut me off. "We need more food." That wasn't exactly what I was expecting.

I tried to bite back my exasperation. "I think we'll be alright, Finn. That wolf that Dan and Mikah killed should last us a while."

"That's not what I meant. We need to find a sustainable food source. Hunting animals is just too unpredictable. What if the deer move on to other places? What if their population is not enough to sustain ours? Then what happens? Honestly, even in the best of circumstances, I don't think we can make it through winter on just meat."

I saw the sense in that. I myself had been worrying about long-term survival. I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if the Ark couldn't send down some help before winter came. It would be nice to have some sort of crop that we could grow and harvest. "What do you suggest?" I asked Finn. I knew he probably already had some sort of a plan forming in his mind.

Finn straightened up as if he was about to give a speech. He was a drama queen like that. "Well to start, I say we send out scouts to explore the woods farther away from camp."

The idea immediately set off all sorts of warning bells in my head. Thousands of possibilities rushed out of my imagination. With our luck, we would probably stumble upon yet another tribe of barbarians who wanted to kill us. However, another thought struck me. So I said, "Well, if we never try, we'll never know."


	2. Bellamy

**This chapter is a bit short, but I hope you have fun reading it!**

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><p>Our warriors were getting better. They learned fast, and the idea of getting attacked by grounders was good motivation. Since I used to be a guard, I had decided to lead training. I was probably the most qualified. There was so much to cover though. I taught knife fighting, spear fighting, fist fighting, and ground fighting every morning. Everyone took part in training. There were two groups of roughly forty-five each that switched every morning. I taught one group one day, and the other group the next.<p>

The day was hot, so we stopped for a water break at the stream that ran near camp. I had just taken both hands and thrown water on my face when I heard a familiar voice call my name. "Bellamy!" I turned to see Clarke standing with both hands on her hips. She didn't look like she was in a very good mood.

"What?" I asked. It came out a little too aggressively and I saw Clarke's frown deepen.

"Finn thinks it's a good idea to scout around and see if we can find an alternate food source."

I sighed, then pressed my lips tightly together. There was just too much to worry about. I'd been thinking about it for some time though, and Finn was right. We didn't have enough resources to supply a hundred kids through winter. Also, ever since we found out about the grounders, no one had been keen to wander too far away from camp which might be preventing us from making useful discoveries. Already decided, I asked, "When do you want to go?"

"Tomorrow at sunrise." Clarke answered tersely. "We are going in groups of two, one brain and one guard for each group. Can you ask six other warriors to come?"

I nodded. A week or so after we landed, Clarke had formed a group of people who were excessively smart. Besides her, the members were Monty, Jasper, Raven, Finn, Kyle, Kara, and Jenny. People had started calling them 'The Brain' and the nickname had stuck. They consulted whenever we made any big decisions and they each had an apprentice that they passed on their knowledge to. It would be good to have them look around for anything useful. Ready to end the conversation and get back to training, I said, "I'll see you at sunrise then."

Clarke nodded once, then walked back towards camp.

While I was distracted, the trainees had been up to no good. A bunch of guys had surrounded a pretty girl and were playfully trying to pull her into the stream. She was giggling and pushing them away. Further upstream, a girl and her boyfriend were making out sloppily. The rest were splashing each other with water. I shouted above the noise, "Hey, let's get back to work!"

Everyone looked disappointed to be pulled away from their fun, but there was work that needed to be done.

We went back to throwing knives at trees and, not ten minutes later, a girl fell to the ground screaming. Her friend hovered over her concernedly. I ran over and snapped, "What happened?"

The girl's friend looked up with tears in her eyes. "We were throwing knives and hers bounced back and hit her arm." I knelt down and took off my shirt; I tied it tightly around the girl's arm, but blood still seeped from the wound. It looked like the knife had sliced through a major artery.

I assessed the situation. Camp was about a quarter of a mile through the woods, but this girl might bleed out before she could get to Clarke. I reached down and hefted her into my arms. I was pretty sure no one else could run as fast as I could. I turned to Miller and shouted, "Take over training!" Then I took off in the direction of camp.

It didn't take me too long to reach camp. The girl in my arms moaned and whimpered the whole time, but she did not weigh much. As entered the clearing, I yelled as loud as I could, "Clarke! Clarke!" People turned and stared with fear and concern. They started asking questions, wondering if there was a grounder attack, but I ignored them all.

I made my way to the drop ship where I saw a blonde head poking out.

Clarke took one look at the girl in my arms, then she ushered us in without a question. "Put her here," Clarke commanded, gesturing to an open area on the ground. I gently lay the girl and the floor of the drop ship. Clarke left my side, then returned with several scraps of cloth and a needle and thread. She removed my shirt from the girl's arm. Clarke took a container of Monty's alcohol and poured it into the gash. The girl moaned in pain, but the blood loss had gotten to her and she was on the verge of passing out. Working quickly, Clarke stitched up the wound. She then took the new bandages and wrapped them around the wound as tightly as she could. By the time she had finished, the girl had drifted off. The healer checked the girl's pulse and breathing.

Clarke sat back on her heels and sighed, "I think she'll be okay." She tried to brush her hair out of her face, but ended up smearing blood across her forehead instead. I tried to hide it, but I couldn't help but smile. Clarke gave me a confused look. "What?"

Immediately, I made my face a mask of mocking seriousness. "Nothing. You just look very nice today... Princess."

It was obvious by the was that Clarke's eyebrows drew together that she had no clue what I was talking about, so she just let it go.

Then we heard someone clear their throat from behind us. Clarke and I both jumped to our feet, hunters' instinct, I guess. Wearing twin braids and a worried expression, there stood the friend of the girl who had been hurt. I think her name was Arien. She looked a bit flustered, apologetic even. I suddenly wondered how long she had been standing there.

Finally, Arien spoke up, "Do you mind if I stay with Hannah until she wakes up?" _So that's her name_, I thought internally. Clarke smiled reassuringly, "Not at all."

Clarke picked up my shirt, soaked in blood. She crossed the room and placed it in a washbasin made of a sheet of scrap metal. I walked over to her. I was going to offer to wash my own shirt, but instead Clarke held out a a damp rag to me. "Clean up."

I looked down. For the first time, I noticed that my entire chest and most of my arms were covered in Hannah's blood. I took the rag from Clarke and started to wipe it across my chest. Clarke continued to wash my shirt.

We worked in silence for a while, until if felt that it was too awkward and something needed to be said. "So how are things between you and Finn?" _Dammit_, I cursed to myself, _that was a stupid thing to say_.

Clarke looked at me hard for a while. I think she was trying to see if I was making fun of her or not. I tried to look sincere and not like the rude asshole version of myself.

Finally, Clarke gave in and sighed, "Awkward." At first, she didn't look like she was going to say anything more, but then her walls crumbled. "He still likes me, and… I really liked him. But I don't understand it. Finn's been dating Raven for years. When she came down, Finn didn't tell her about us, but she found out later. I feel horrible, but I didn't even know she existed."

Clarke looked a bit embarrassed about her confession. I could almost see her walls going back up. For some reason, I knew that I had to stop that from happening. So I said, "I bet it was a bit of a shock then, when Raven and Finn reunited."

Clarke laughed only once, but I could feel the tension lift.

We went back to work in silence, but, unlike before, it was a comfortable one.


	3. Dawn

**Another short chapter. Sigh. I have very little time to write nowadays. I'm considering quitting. If you think my story is worth continuing, please follow, favorite, or review it to let me know. Thanks for reading! May we meet again.**

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><p><em>Clarke<em>

Like most nights, I slept on the floor of the drop ship. I liked to be there in case any of my patients needed anything. I didn't need someone with a broken ankle trying to get up for a drink of water in the middle of the night.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I looked outside the open doors. It was still dark, but it felt early. I got up and started my morning routine. I walked around the room, checking my four patients. All of them were soundly sleeping.

When we first landed, Bellamy and his goons had wanted to use the drop ship as their living quarters. I fought against them and eventually won that battle. So I turned the drop ship into a kind of infirmary. I stocked it with all sorts of medical supplies from the bunker that Bellamy and I had found. There was also plenty of water that had been cleansed by boiling and an entire tank of Monty's alcohol which I used to sterilize medical supplies and wounds alike.

As we soon found out, it's a lot easier to get hurt on earth than it is in space. I had several people come to me with sprained or twisted ankles from the uneven ground. One of my current patients was cutting firewood with a homemade axe when he missed his mark and the blade sunk into the side of his calf. A good number of people had come in with all sorts of stomach bugs and cold symptoms. Our immune systems must be working on overdrive to combat all sorts of bacteria and germs that we have never been exposed to before. The sun exposure seemed to hit us pretty badly as well. A lot of people had been getting sunburns and migraines from the glaring rays. Our bodies just needed some time to adapt to this new environment.

By the time I went through my daily chores, it was beginning to get light outside. I stepped out of the drop ship and sat down outside to wait for the others. The air was damp and cool. It was strange to feel thousands of tiny droplets pressing against me like a watery blanket. The feeling was somehow both comforting and suffocating.

Dawn was beginning to break. On the ark, there were two levels of light: pitch blackness, and a blinding brightness. On earth there were all these strange shades in between. It was fascinating to watch the night fade into morning. The darkness seemed to peel away in layers, each one leaving my vision clearer than it had been before. I had never experienced anything like it before landing on earth. There were a lot of things like that about earth which should have been simple pleasures to be taken for granted, but I actually felt it my duty to cherish them as fully as possible. It was like I needed to do this for the people like my father who would never get the chance to take these little things for granted.

I sat there and watched daylight seep into the sky while I waited. Jenny was the first one to show up. She was a bit stuck up, but she would be essential to this mission because she was really into botany. Her parents were in charge of the production of all our crops on the ark. Jenny might be able to find something that we could use as food.

Next came two of our guards: Mikah and Ronan. I didn't know much about either, except that Mikah had helped to kill one of the enormous wolves that liked to prowl near camp.

Monty and Jasper walked over next, followed closely by Kara, a quiet girl who used to read a lot of history novels. She had accumulated quite a knowledge of the "Modern" Age - a time period that stretched from the late 20th century up until the nuclear apocalypse.

After them came Kyle. He was not the sort of guy you would expect to be a brain. He looked like a 21st century American football player. He was tall and fit, and he could almost blind you with his dazzling smile. However, like Kara, he used to read a lot. Actually, his father's job was to maintain one of the Ark's libraries. Also, his mother was a biology teacher so he knew a great deal about that as well.

The sky was lit up by now, but the sun had yet to make an appearance. No one had spoken yet for fear of breaking the peace that lay on the morning. Finn arrived around the same time as the rest of the warriors. Bellamy, predictably, was dead last. He sauntered up with his arms swinging and his trademark smirk on his face.

The smug bastard, I thought. He hadn't even told me that I had Hannah's blood on my forehead yesterday.

"'Sup?" He asked. Bellamy's words shattered the peace and stillness that lay on the morning. The group, which had previously been in a deeply thoughtful mood, was snapped back to reality. "Am I the last one?" Bellamy didn't wait for a response. "Good. Alright, everyone grab a partner. One guard for each brain."

People began shuffling around. Kyle and Mikah fist bumped. Jenny flashed a coy smile at a cute warrior, who jumped at the chance to be her guard. I didn't know most of the guards so I turned to look for Bellamy, but he had already paired up with Finn. Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I groaned internally; it was Miles.

Miles was only fifteen years old, but he had a huge crush on me. I tried to be nice to him, but he was starting to get on my nerves. "Hey," He said, "Wanna pair up with me?"

I forced myself to smile politely and say, "Sure." Miles grinned from ear to ear.

Then I passed out the emergency kits that I had been putting together. There was one for each group. The kits had water, bandages, rations and my personal favorite: a whistle that one of the boys had taught himself to carve from wood. I instructed everyone to blow the whistle in case of emergency.

As I passed out the kits, I briefed everyone about the purpose of the mission. I instructed them to bring back samples of any plants, fruits, or berries that may be edible. I ordered them to look for anything that might help us survive. Lastly, I told them to be on guard and cautious at all times. With that, I wished everyone good luck.

We made our way to the gates of the camp as the sun made its first appearance. "Hold up!" A voice yelled. We all turned around. Raven stood in the middle of camp with her arms crossed across her chest. "Was I not invited?"

I grimaced. I hadn't told Raven about the trip, even though she was a brain. I knew she would want to come, but we didn't really need a mechanic for this mission. I tried to make an excuse, "I figured I'd let you get a head start on the spearheads we were going to try to make." It was a lame excuse. The spearheads were a project that we'd been talking about for a while. Raven had built an oven for melting metals, and we wanted to see if it could be put to use for making weapons.

But Raven replied, "Screw the spearheads, I want to come."

I sighed, "Raven, what do you know about plants? We need people who can help find food to get us through winter."

Raven pursed her lips. "Fine, then I'll be a guard." I considered it for a bit. I didn't really see the harm in letting her come. I knew she could fight as well as some of our warriors. I looked to Bellamy for confirmation. He just shrugged apathetically.

"Alright," I consented. Raven smiled broadly. She strode up to Finn and linked her arm in his. "Need a body guard?" she said flirtatiously. I tried to look away, but it was too hard. My chest ached when I saw Finn smile back. It tried not to resent Raven, but I felt it bubbling up inside me. She had gotten everything I had ever wanted.

A voice at my ear made me jump, "Careful Princess, your jealousy is showing." Bellamy's mocking face loomed over mine. I scowled back at him, but he pretended not to notice. "So now that my partner's taken, I gunna need someone to keep me from eating something poisonous."

I was getting irritated by him. "Sorry, but I already have a partner."

Bellamy smirked. "Not for long." He turned to yell at Miles, who was standing awkwardly not far off, "Sorry, Miles, but we don't need you anymore." Miles opened his mouth to protest, but Bellamy cut him off, "You don't have a problem with that, do you?" Miles hung his head and muttered a dejected no. Then he went back through the gates dragging his feet.

"Abuse of power," I said under my breath, just loud enough to be sure that Bellamy could hear me. He rolled his eyes.

"Let's get going," He ordered the group. "We're wasting daylight."

Then we all split up and went our separate ways.


End file.
